I must admit when I first started in real estate I seldom established goals for myself. Sometimes I would think about how many listings I believed I would need to have as well as how many sales I needed to earn a certain amount but during the year I pretty much cruised along without much if any thought to my "goals". By the end of the year I probably could not have told you, without looking at what I had written down, what goals I had started out with at the beginning of the year.

In 2001 I transferred my license to a brand new RE/MAX office which had just opened at Lake Anna. One of the owners mentioned to me that she would like to see everyone in the office earn a certain figure or more. My immediate reaction was I would have to spend too much time working in order to do that. Well, it happened and quite easily.

Ever since that happened I have set goals for myself. Do you? If you do, do you prefer to keep them a secret or do you share your goal(s) with others?

For some people sharing their goals with others gives them more of an incentive to strive to achieve those goals. Others are more comfortable keeping them to themselves.

We are seeing a number of posts by our fellow members which are telling us these highly productive agents set goals and determine from year to year the tools that are helping them achieve their goals. If you read many of these, and do not currently set goals for yourself, you may be encouraged to do so. You will find many suggestions in these posts that will help you do exactly that and so I will suggest something else.

When setting your goals, if that is what you decide to do, please be sure to consider goals in other areas of your life.

Think about some of the relationships you hope to strength or renew.

Is there anything, perhaps a sport or a hobby, that you would like to learn or improve upon.

Are there places that you would like to visit.

Have you thought about learning a new language.

Would you like to take on and complete a big home project.

Would you like to make time for volunteering and if so with what organization.

Have you thought about adopting a more healthy lifestyle.

There are so many areas in our lives where it would be very helpful for us to take a minute or two to evaluate how well we are doing. Reflecting upon other areas of our lives will make for a more complete life. That in turn enables us to feel better about ourselves and that certainly has an impact on how well we will do professionally.

All aspects of our lives require our attention. One area impacts others. If goals can help you attain more balance in all aspects of your life be sure to set them and keep them where you are constantly reminded of them. If sharing them with others will help you do that, then be sure to share. If keeping them to yourself serves you better, do exactly that.

Time marches on so quickly. Work at making the most of the time you have to ensure 2010 is as productive and as fulfilling as possible.